By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Reporter

There is good news for American landowners. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has decided not to implement and enforce its embattled Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule for two years while officials reconsider and potentially rewrite it.

“EPA is taking action to reduce confusion and provide certainty to America’s farmers and ranchers,” EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said. “The 2015 WOTUS rule developed by the Obama administration will not be applicable for the next two years, while we work through the process of providing long-term regulatory certainty across all 50 states about what waters are subject to federal regulation.”

After EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers rolled out WOTUS in 2015, more than a dozen states, including Texas, and entities, including Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) and American Farm Bureau, filed legal challenges against the rule alleging it is huge federal overreach by EPA.

“WOTUS is supposed to mean large, navigable waters like the Mississippi River. Unfortunately, when they passed the Clean Water Act in 1972, the navigable waters of the U.S. was not defined,” Regan Beck, TFB director of Government Affairs said. “Over time, there’s been a slow increase in regulation over these areas to the point that now with the new WOTUS rule implemented by the EPA, they’re so broad almost all water is included in it.”

EPA’s action Wednesday means landowners will no longer have to worry about the 2015 WOTUS rule going into effect if a national stay on the rule is lifted.

The American Farm Bureau Federation applauded the delay of the “hopelessly vague” rule that expansively defined what is considered a “water of the U.S.” by EPA.

“That rule would have put a stranglehold on ordinary farming and ranching by treating dry ditches, swales and low spots on farm fields just like flowing waters,” AFBF President Zippy Duvall said. “Without today’s action, countless farmers and ranchers, as well as other landowners and businesses, would risk lawsuits and huge penalties for activities as common and harmless as plowing a field.”

While officials reconsider WOTUS, landowners need to follow pre-2015 regulations under the Clean Water Act.